Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt
Samuel Lebens and Tyron Goldschmidt provided original theodicies, which suggest that at one time God will change the past, either by erasing/substituting the sins of humans or erasing the whole entirety of evils. Both theodicies imply the idea that God can completely change the past without leaving...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Open Theology |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0014 |
| _version_ | 1818692414201659392 |
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| author | Faul Bogdan V. |
| author_facet | Faul Bogdan V. |
| author_sort | Faul Bogdan V. |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Samuel Lebens and Tyron Goldschmidt provided original theodicies, which suggest that at one time God will change the past, either by erasing/substituting the sins of humans or erasing the whole entirety of evils. Both theodicies imply the idea that God can completely change the past without leaving any traces. In this paper, I argue that Lebens’ and Goldschmidt’s preferred model, which they call the scene-changing theory, is problematic. First, its complex metaphysical foundation could be replaced with presentism (roughly, the view in the ontology of time that only present things exist) without losing any substantial heuristics. Second, their theory either implies a controversial theory of truthmaking under presentistic and hyper-presentistic ontology or implies controversial views on the counting of events under presentistic and hyper-presentistic ontology. Thirdly, I will argue that any theory of elimination/substitution of evils of the past implies that there are unnecessary evils, which is inconsistent with God’s goodness. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T12:57:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-10f55b715f33454b85915c7345cb2825 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2300-6579 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T12:57:24Z |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Theology |
| spelling | doaj.art-10f55b715f33454b85915c7345cb28252022-12-21T21:47:27ZengDe GruyterOpen Theology2300-65792020-02-016116717410.1515/opth-2020-0014opth-2020-0014Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and GoldschmidtFaul Bogdan V.0Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russian FederationSamuel Lebens and Tyron Goldschmidt provided original theodicies, which suggest that at one time God will change the past, either by erasing/substituting the sins of humans or erasing the whole entirety of evils. Both theodicies imply the idea that God can completely change the past without leaving any traces. In this paper, I argue that Lebens’ and Goldschmidt’s preferred model, which they call the scene-changing theory, is problematic. First, its complex metaphysical foundation could be replaced with presentism (roughly, the view in the ontology of time that only present things exist) without losing any substantial heuristics. Second, their theory either implies a controversial theory of truthmaking under presentistic and hyper-presentistic ontology or implies controversial views on the counting of events under presentistic and hyper-presentistic ontology. Thirdly, I will argue that any theory of elimination/substitution of evils of the past implies that there are unnecessary evils, which is inconsistent with God’s goodness.https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0014the problem of evilgodnecessary evileternalismpresentismmoving spotlight theoryphilosophy of timehypertime |
| spellingShingle | Faul Bogdan V. Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt Open Theology the problem of evil god necessary evil eternalism presentism moving spotlight theory philosophy of time hypertime |
| title | Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt |
| title_full | Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt |
| title_fullStr | Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt |
| title_full_unstemmed | Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt |
| title_short | Can God Promise Us a New Past? A Response to Lebens and Goldschmidt |
| title_sort | can god promise us a new past a response to lebens and goldschmidt |
| topic | the problem of evil god necessary evil eternalism presentism moving spotlight theory philosophy of time hypertime |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0014 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT faulbogdanv cangodpromiseusanewpastaresponsetolebensandgoldschmidt |